A California man is headed to federal prison for more than six years after a judge said he spent nearly a decade gaming the banking system for about $39 million. The scheme, prosecutors say, leaned on sham companies, stolen identities and commercial loans that were supposed to buy heavy equipment but were instead quietly diverted. On top of the 78-month sentence, the court tacked on three years of supervised release and hefty financial penalties aimed at paying back the lenders that got burned.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the defendant is 64-year-old Gary Topolewski of Northridge, who pleaded guilty in December 2025 to one count of bank fraud. Court filings cited by the department say Topolewski submitted bogus commercial loan applications for companies including Topolewski America Inc., Morrison Knudsen Services Inc. and Metal Jeans Inc., and that those entities pulled in more than $39 million in fraudulently obtained loan proceeds. The Justice Department says the court ordered forfeiture of about $21.8 million and more than $19.4 million in restitution to victims.
How prosecutors say the scheme worked
The FBI’s Las Vegas field office laid out the playbook in a post on X, saying Topolewski told lenders the money was for large industrial earth-moving equipment and working capital. Prosecutors allege that, instead, he steered the cash into real estate purchases and Ponzi-style payments to other lenders. Investigators say he used multiple aliases, relied on at least one stolen identity and cycled proceeds from newer loans into older accounts to hide shortfalls. Federal authorities describe a pattern of nearly ten years of repeat deception that reached seven different financial institutions.
A long history in court
Topolewski is no stranger to federal courtrooms. Appellate and district court records show he has spent years tangled in trademark and contract disputes tied to companies with similar names. A Ninth Circuit opinion and related filings detail earlier business litigation involving Metal Jeans and Topolewski America, including findings and claims about concealed financial information in civil proceedings. Those civil records provide backdrop to the government’s description of repeated, hidden dealings in this criminal case.
Legal fallout and next steps
With the sentence now on the books, federal prosecutors say the forfeiture and restitution orders are designed to help make lenders whole, and the FBI will keep working to track down and recover assets connected to the scheme. The Department of Justice credited Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Sigal Chattah for the District of Nevada and FBI Special Agent in Charge Christopher Delzotto in announcing the result, and court materials identify the trial attorneys who handled the prosecution. Topolewski’s prison term and the financial orders stem from his guilty plea and a lengthy investigation by the FBI and the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section.
Federal authorities often lean on forfeiture and restitution to strip away the profits of complex frauds, although it can take time to identify assets and sort through competing legal claims. For now, prosecutors say the sentence and money judgments close a long-running chapter that centered on falsified commercial loan requests and millions siphoned out of banks over the better part of a decade.
